Nature's Glories

This month's theme at Country View Crafts Challenges is Nature's Glories and I couldn't help but think flowers and these fabulous Lin Brown designed flowers (for PaperArtsy) seem to fit the bill perfectly! 

The pages of my large journal were painted with PaperArtsy paints and the spots are Grunge Paste through a stencil. I then painted them with Portfolio oil pastels - I love the effect this creates.

The I sponged the paint on to each flower stamp and printed them creating a variety of shades - I made lots more flowers than I needed and then cut them up to make layers and add depth.

The bottles (again, PaperArtsy!) were stamped on packaging from some of Tim's new dies! Thank you for popping to see my project, we are looking forward to seeing what you'll create this month!

Following Alice

This week's challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On was chosen by lovely May who chose the theme "Following Alice" which is to include Alice, the rabbit and a situation (and the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag).

I used some of the fabulous Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland papers and cut out Alice, the rabbit and a Cheshire Cat. The tag itself was die cut from some more of the paper. I used the bottom of a die cut dress form for the pedestal of the table and a scalloped die cut for the table top. I edged it all in Vintage Photo Distress Ink (I know I use this ink on everything but it really seems to suit!) 

The flower and leaves are Wendy Vecchi stamps and the centre of the flower was inked with a blue Distress Ink and covered with Glossy Accents. The corked bottle was filled with Barn Door Reinker and water and tied with twine and a little button my sister gave me!

The banner was die cut and stamped with some individual letter stamps in Sepia Archival Ink. I then added the obligatory Vintage Photo Distress Ink and folded it! I added more twine as a ribbon and slightly curled it. 

I hope you pop over and see what the other DT members have made - I have had a sneak preview and they are amazing! And then, when you've had a peek, why not join in?! I'd love to see what you make.

I'm a Rubber Stamp Collector!

This is my newest project for Creative Expressions. We have been given Wendy Vecchi's fabulous The Voice of Art stamp set and I've used the background receipt stamp and the advert as the basis for this notelet. I used kraft card and stamped the receipt stamp using Jet Black Archival Ink and then I distressed the edges and used Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The advert was stamped on kraft card with Archival Ink as before and then I stamped various colours of Distress Stain on my craft mat and painted the ink on with a paintbrush (I used Peeled Paint, Barn Door, Mustard Seed and Broken China). As before I distressed the edges and used Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The ink bottle was stamped three times on kraft card. The first was covered in Broken China Distress Stain and double embossed with clear embossing powder. I cut out the label of the second and edged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. On the third I just cut out the diamond 'inks' label and inked it with Broken China Distress Stain. I then assembled them together with Glossy Accents.

I painted a little kraft card with Silver Paint Dabber  and then stamped a pen nib over the top. The banner was die cut and I stamped the sentiment and edged it as before. I have used this as a notelet and sent it to Michaela who won my recent blog candy but if you are a card maker it would easily fit onto a card, or would be a cute wall hanging! 

Small Stars

I thought I'd try and be smart and join in a couple of challenges early on this week! Cheesy Chester Cheeto eating Hels has set the challenge of 'Stars' this week and Simon Says Stamp and Show want us to make ATCs - so how hard can that be?! Well I failed a bit last week with an annoying mental block so I figured that if I got in early then the block wouldn't happen! 

I used an ATC Art Part (so I would get the size right!) and then stared at it in horror 'cos they really are tiny! I tried two versions that really shouldn't be spoken of again and then settled on covering the ATC with 

a scrap of Stampin' Up paper and then stamped on one of Wendy's Tools for Art stamps (it has stars on - tick!) in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

I took one of the ink bottle Art Parts and covered it in PaperArtsy Old Gold, a layer of Crackle Glaze and a final layer of Little Black Dress. If you haven't used these paints before I would urge you to try them - they are really lush. 

The bottle label, ticket, and advert are all stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink onto Grungepaper and coloured with Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Broken China and Stormy Sky Distress Stains. The stamps are a mix of Wendy and Tim's stamps. 

I added a pen nib into the hand hopefully at an angle as if it was being used. The stars are Art Parts covered in a couple of layers of Broken China Distress Stain and stamped with a dotty stamp in Faded Jeans Distress Ink. In constructing this I did have to go outside the ATC area (I did say it was tiny!) but it makes a nice little hanging... Thank you for reading. Gabrielle x